Donald Trump’s favorite phrase has become 2017’s ‘word of the year’

President Donald Trump will be characteristically pleased with himself when he hears which one of his favorite phrases, “fake news”, has been named “word of the year” by dictionary publisher Collins.

Announcing the winner, U.K.-based Collins Dictionary said the term “fake news” saw an “unprecedented” rise with usage of the term increasing 365 percent since 2016.

Defining “fake news” as meaning “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting,” Collins said the word had come top of its annual assessment of the most used words inside the English language as well as also will today have its own entry in next year’s dictionary.

The term has become synonymous with Trump who has used the phrase repeatedly to criticize the media, particularly during his today infamous Twitter rants, as well as also what he perceives to be inaccurate reporting.

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Helen Newstead, the head of language content at Collins, said which much of This specific year’s list of words was “definitely politically charged.”

“‘Fake news’, either as a statement of fact or as an accusation, has been inescapable This specific year, contributing to the undermining of society’s trust in news reporting: given the term’s ubiquity as well as also its regular usage by President Trump, the idea will be clear which Collins’ Word of the Year ‘fake news’ will be very real news,” she said.

Trump appeared to claim in a recent interview which he had coined the phrase, reportedly telling Mick Huckabee (who also ran for the Republican presidential nomination) in an interview which: “I guess additional people have used the idea (the term ‘fake’ in conjunction with ‘media’) perhaps through the years, although I’ve never noticed the idea. as well as also the idea’s a shame. as well as also they genuinely hurt the country,” he said.

However Collins, which will be part of the HarperCollins publishing empire as well as also has published dictionaries since 1819, said on Thursday which the association of “fake” with “news” began out inside the field of comedy, as exemplified by shows such as Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” as well as also Chris Morris’s “The Day Today.”

Then, around 2005, the term began to be applied to false news stories which were circulated with malicious intent rather than as satire.

“During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign pundits noted the large number of websites broadcasting false stories about the candidates under the guise of news. Then in January 2017 Donald Trump dismissed reports through the CNN news agency about his alleged links with Russia as ‘fake news’. Claims which potentially damaging stories were ‘fake news’, as well as also enquiries into the proliferation of such stories were a major part of the news agenda in 2017,” the dictionary publisher noted.